Sunday, December 30, 2012

" Arise 'Sir' Hector Sants " - You couldn't make this crap up!

Hector Sants, who was in charge of regulation
at the start of the credit crisis, has been knighted. It is in recognition for
services to financial regulation.

In granting Sants this honour, George Osborne
and David Cameron have finally proved beyond any question that they simply
don't understand the terrible damage that the financial sector and the banks in
particular, have caused to the financial interests of the ordinary people of
these islands.

They cannot seem to make the connection between
the dreadful financial damage wrought by the banks on the British economy, and
the real suffering this damage has caused to the ordinary men and women of
Britain who are watching their livelihoods, their futures, their children's
livelihoods and their children's futures being undermined and whittled away by
this constant program of austerity, and the repeated refusal to make the
financial sector come into line with the real world.

This is the real issue and the true outcome of
the financial crisis, where ordinary people's livelihoods are being sacrificed
for the continued interests of Britain's ruling elites. The blame for this can
be laid firmly at the feet of the British banking sector, who through their arrogance,
ignorance and greed * created money they could not underwrite, sold debt and
called it investment, and then fixed the tables on which these gambles were
taking place so that they always won.

The reason for the cause of this dreadful
cancer in the body financial can be laid firmly at the door of a bunch of
bumbling amateurish incompetents in the Canary Wharf Palace of Varieties, known
more widely as the Financial Services Authority, who have consistently failed
to regulate and curtail the activities of the criminal banks. They have the
powers to do so, but they do not have the will, and in many cases the
competence to achieve their statutory requirements. And the underlying cause of
this sheer incompetence lies, and has to lie at the very top of the
organisation, in the office of the Chief Executive.

After all, he was the man who, when describing
the origins of the financial crisis, laid the blame at the door of the US and
UK governments for their part in the crisis, saying authorities worldwide
sought to "encourage a significant credit boom particularly for the
benefit of consumers who wished to purchase housing". This would be to
completely ignore the role of the financial regulators in ensuring that the
banking activities under their watch were not allowed to get out of hand.

Hector Sants has been Chief Executive of the
Fantastically Supine Apologists since 2007, although he had already been a
Managing Director of an FSA Division since 2004.

As such he was well placed to know what was
happening in the markets and to hear the various rumblings in the undergrowth.
He had previously been a successful investment banker with UBS and later Credit Suisse, so he was obviously a
man with significant financial and market experience.

Yet, he was sufficiently unaware of a major
crisis building in the market when he took the job as head of the FSA, two
months before the collapse of Northern Rock in 2007. This was followed by huge
government bailouts for two major leading banks, Royal Bank of Scotland and
Lloyds TSB. In the aftermath of the crisis, Sir Hector warned the City to
"be frightened" as he pledged an era of more intrusive and direct
regulation.

During a
subsequent Parliamentary investigation MPs criticised the FSA for its handling
of regulation during the credit crunch and accused it of being "asleep at
the wheel".

Since then, a vast number of banking scandals
arising out of a total failure of regulation have come to light on his watch.

The scandals involving what is inappropriately
referred to as mis-selling (it should be called downright institutionalised fraud),
have arisen from a banking culture that believes it is still fair game to stuff
their clients with unsuitable financial products, and mislead them as to their
suitability for their needs!

The FSA were only too well aware that this
fraud was widespread in the market but they allowed it to continue. Then there
has been the long list of scandals involving wholesale money laundering and
sanctions busting carried out by British banks, which again were allowed to
carry on under Sants' oversight. Did no-one come to him and say 'Hector, we have
a problem', apparently not?

Sir Hector said his award was a "testament
to the hard work of everyone at the FSA during the crisis, their willingness to
learn lessons and to bring about the changes that were necessary".

Well, that's alright then! I don't know what
lessons have been learned or what changes have been brought about which Sants
seems to be so pleased over. All I know is that whatever the scandal, and no
matter how big the crime, or egregious
the dishonesty, very, very, few criminals routinely get prosecuted by the FSA
for the crimes which are within their limits of responsibilities.

Sir Hector began his City career as a
stockbroker at Phillips and Drew, later taking senior positions at the
investment banks UBS and Credit Suisse.

While at the FSA, Sir Hector personally warned
the then chairman of Barclays, Marcus Agius, that Bob Diamond might not be a
suitable choice to become the bank's chief executive in 2010.

He also conveyed the FSA's worries about the
bank's culture, including the attitudes of its most senior staff to
risk-taking, tax laws and banking regulations.

And what notice did Barclays and their capo di
tutti cappi, Roberto Diamante, take of those warnings.

Nada, rien, nix, nil, nul, fucking nothing! That's
how much they feared Hector, despite his little warnings about banks being
'afraid' of the FSA!

Earlier this year, the FSA fined Barclays
£59.5m for its part in the Libor rate-rigging scandal, after which Mr Diamond
left the bank, but it was the Governor of the Bank of England and the Chairman
of the FSA who provided the 'encouragement' for Diamond to go!

Sants had planned to leave his role in February
2010, but was convinced by Chancellor George Osborne to stay on to see through
the coalition's break-up of the FSA. The real probability is that Osborne
couldn't find any other city figure who wanted to have his career blemished by
all the egg on the face that would accompany the winding down of the FSA,
particularly as it is only in recent months that the real truth about the
levels of extreme organised criminality in banking have started to become
public. No doubt the offer of a knighthood as a cost of seeing through the
changes might have sweetened the pill.

It was earlier thought that Hector might become
a deputy governor of the Bank of England and head the Prudential Regulation
Authority (PRA) - one of two new regulatory bodies that will replace the FSA as
part of an overhaul in the wake of the financial crisis. Events have turned out
rather differently.

Hector unexpectedly resigned earlier this year
and has courted more controversy, by joining scandal-hit Barclays from January
2013 to improve the bank's reputation with governments and regulators internationally,
where he will become the bank's first point of contact for them.

Barclays,
which had its reputation battered following this summer's LIBOR rate-rigging
revelations, needs to do something very urgently to distance itself from its
reputation as a mafia family. Maybe they think that the man who didn't know
what they were up to when he was head of the regulator which oversaw them is
just the man for the job.

He is believed to be in line for a £3m pay
package.

He will be directly responsible for making sure
all its 140,000 staff obey the law in the more than 50 countries where it
operates and that it is held in higher esteem by governments and regulators in
future!

Well, this should be interesting to watch. He
couldn't achieve that outcome when he had responsibility for supervising their
activities while head of the FSA, so what odds he will achieve it now? Still,
£3 million will help the old life-style a bit! Nothing like getting a taste of
modern-day banking rewards to make a chap feel at home from day 1!

The award of this honour is as farcical in its
provision as was the award of a knighthood to Fred 'the Shred' Goodwin at RBS.

Both awards demonstrate a degree of contempt
for the issuance of awards in general, and for the specific reasons for
granting the particular honour.

In Hector's case, it may well be that he is
getting his pay-off for seeing through the winding down of the FSA, although
some may feel that he had a duty to do that in any event as many of its particular
failings occurred under his oversight.

I sense it is even more cynical than that
however.

My feeling is that by disposing of this award
on Hector, the Government can be observed to be honouring the FSA in general.
That is how Hector himself refers to its receipt!

By so doing, the Government is letting it be
known that the FSA should not be perceived as the total failure it has become,
worse even than the long gone but unlamented Company's Investigation Branch of
the DTI!

Cameron and Osborne don't want writers and
commentators queuing up to hammer the FSA, declaring it to be a wholesale
failure, because that will not reflect well on them. No, better to grant its
former CEO a knighthood, and make it look as if everything in the garden was
rosy.

The fact that you, me, the City, the Americans
and anyone else who has the remotest interest in these issues knows it wasn't,
is neither here nor there.

I am deeply angered at this cynical award,
because it makes a complete mockery of those people who have received awards
and who may perhaps feel that they have done something to achieve them,
something of value. Sants is being rewarded for failure, but in the strange
la-la land of the Square Mile, it was ever thus!

*Thanks go to Show of Hands for their wonderful
song 'Arrogance, Ignorance and Greed'.

7 comments:

There can be no doubt now of the complicity, stupidity and arrogance of Osborne, Cameron (et al) complicity in the cynical economic rape of the ordinary men and women of Britain. Government's failure to intervene and prevent this utter debasement of the honours system is now complete.

Surely it is time for some form of passive resistance. There must be some act of delay, non-participation or civil disobedience we can all indulge in that would frustrate and slowly render government incapable of operating effectively. Any ideas anyone? Something has to be done to make government listen and act. This is no longer something that can be left to national politicians; ALL of whom have failed all of us. There has been plenty of well orchestrated theatre but NO meaningful action. Ashley

I think that we have to recognise that the upper ranks of government and the political class are not incompetent. Their motives are venal at best but the accumulated evidence points to something far worse.

The dismantling of our economies (and our nation states) is deliberate and long planned in my view.

Call me a conspiracy theorist if you wish, but I've been watching the unthinkable occur for 40 odd years now since I read Carol Quigley's Tragedy and Hope in my early teens.

In the summary of its report on the appointment of John Griffith-Jones to head the new FCA issued on 18 January, the Treasury Select Committee points its finger at the FSA which it says “failed consumers” and left them exposed to some of the worst scandals in UK financial history”. It goes on to accuse the FSA board of failing in its oversight.

These scathing comments, which seem to have escaped the attention of the mainstream press, were reported Michelle McGagh of CityWire, who asks “Should the financial regulator be fined for its mistakes?” As Michelle says,“The FSA has made some meek admissions to being in the wrong. In October Lord Turner, FSA chairman, said ‘bad rules’ were allowed to remain in place and ‘a lot of very clever people got it very wrong’ – what an understatement.The fact is the FSA didn’t bother to put the rules right because the people at the top wouldn’t have to be accountable for it. In fact, they’re so unaccountable that they can be rewarded for their failures; take the recently knighted FSA chief executive Hector Sants. You can oversee the collapse of the UK economy and still get a gong. The FSA is very keen to hand out fines and ban people from working in financial services, but what if they had to live by their own rules and suffer punishment where it hurts; in their pockets.” http://www.citywire.co.uk/money/should-the-financial-regulator-be-fined-for-its-mistakes/a651971?re=22186&ea=238229&utm_source=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary&utm_medium=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary&utm_campaign=BulkEmail_Money_Daily_Summary

For almost two decades we have strived to get justice for the injustice we have suffered at the hands of a world renowned bank--- PICTET & CIE. BANK.

Two yorkshiremen both running their own small family businesses trying to resolve the problem by taking all the correct legal procedures to recover their monies.

The matter was raised in Parliament – twice-- the FSA investigated the matter concluding that PICTET had rogues operating in their London Bank --- but the rogues had left ---saying no one left to prosecute.??? ----- so there.

We then approached the Financial Ombudsman Service. (FOS) --- our case was dealt with by seven different people ---- then our numerous E-Mails were ignored --- nobody would speak to us -------so there.

We then asked the SFO ( Serious Fraud Office.) to investigate our case ---- the criteria of our case ticked all their boxes. --- we were instructed not to send them any documents/evidence.------ in fact they wrote to us advising us to go to the Citizen's Advice Bureau.(CAB.)

Richard Alderman the SFO boss ---- who responded to our letter was the same man who would not investigate the “ Madoff” scandal or the “Libor” fiasco.The MP's committee ---- said he was sloppy--- and the SFO was run like “ Fred Karno's Circus” ----- it was an office of fraud.----- so there.

Our M.P. approached our local Chief Constable to investigate----- he was called---- Sir Norman Bettison--- Chief Constable of West Yorkshire Police ---- a force that made “ Dad's Army” look like the S.A.S. They were inept – corrupt ---malicious --- from top to bottom. We were criminally dealt with by the Forces Solicitor---- the Head of the Economic Crime Unit ----and the Chief Constable ----- so there.

We were then advised to pass our complaint against West Yorkshire Police to the I.P.C.C. – which we did --- they advised us to make our complaint to ---- the West Yorkshire Police --- we did with reluctance --- all we got was abuse and obfuscation. ----- so there.

Sir Norman Bettison ---- The Forces solicitor--- and the Head of the Economic Crime ---- have all been removed from their posts and facing criminal allegations.------ so there.

We even sought justice through the Courts --- culminating in a visit to the Court of Appeal-London.--- On leaving the Courts of Appeal that day our barrister a “rising star” informed us --- that if that was Justice then you can keep it. He quit the law and moved to Canada ----- so there.

A few years later we learned that one of the judges in our case at the Court of Appeal was related to a senior executive of the Pictet Bank -----so there.

Pictet & Cie .Bank --- voted private bank of the year 2013.Ivan Pictet ---- Voted banker of the year 2012. ---- the senior partner --- lied on numerous occasions and had documents destroyed --- also said genuine documents were forgeries. ----- so there.

Ivan Pictet in Oct. 2013 ---- Given the Legion of Honour --- but saying that ---- honours were given to Hitler --- Eichmann --- Mussolini ---Franco --- he's in fitting company. ----so there.

MONTY RAPHAEL.Q.C. -- Peters & Peters.London. They were the banks lawyers.Monty Raphael.Q.C. along with Ivan Pictet withheld crucial documents requested by the High Court ---- the FSA ---- and the police Fraud Squad. ----so there.

Monty Raphael.Q.C. became an Honorary Queens Counsellor in March. 2012.Monty Raphael.Q.C. became a Master of the Bench in Nov.2012.An expert in Fraud ---the Doyen of Fraud Lawyers. ----- so there.

This says a lot about Banks --- the consensus of opinion is that they are highly paid “crooks” ---- no wonder they voted Ivan Pictet banker of the year.

It appears that crimes in the “establishment.” are honoured by their peers. “HONOUR AMONG THIEVES.”

About Me

Having spent my career dealing with financial crime, both as a Met detective and as a legal consultant, I now spend my time working with financial institutions advising them on the best way to provide compliance with the plethora of conflicting regulations and laws designed to prevent and forestall money laundering - whatever that might be! This blog aims to provide a venue for discussion on these and aligned issues, because most of these subjects are so surrounded by disinformation and downright intellectual dishonesty, an alternative mouthpiece is predicated. Please share your views with what is published here from time to time!